


whispers of an age long gone

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Fluff and Angst, Isshu-chihou | Unova, Light Angst, M/M, Mystery, Mystery Character(s), Storytelling, The author is confused, Treasure Hunting, and she wrote it, he also has pokemon, overusing commas, sicheng is... a treasure hunter? i guess?, some info is left out on purpose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-23 21:02:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20222782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: there are rumours, sometimes. of a king buried beneath the seas and the treasure he hides.sicheng does not care about the treasure or the reward; he cares about the secrets that the tomb hides.





	whispers of an age long gone

**Author's Note:**

> this was born entirely of my love for winwin

there are rumours, spread between other treasure hunters, that he only ever hears in bits and pieces. one man mentions a story of an old king, dying late into his reign, late into his life, who was buried deep beneath the ocean as a sign of honor. the man says, “he was buried beneath the waves as a sign of respect, to show that he was the world to his subjects ─ that he held the world on his shoulders, and did so for so long that they could no longer live.”

a different woman says that the temple is hiding the stories of legends, how to earn the respect of them. she tells him about a prince of the sea, a small myth named  _ manaphy.  _ the name itself means  _ ruler of waves;  _ perhaps that could be the king they talk about, sealed away within his temple until he is reborn again?

another treasure seeker suggests it was simply designed to hide his relics. “he would not want the common people desecrating his grave, would he?” they speculate. “by placing their tomb deep beneath the waves, where only a certain few could access it… it would only appear as a monument to his life, and not the hiding place for his crystals and his gold.”

sicheng sits by the seeker, and looks out over the waves. his samurott moves gently back and forth with the waves, face turned towards him. reaching out, he rubs the side of the horn, until the pokemon hums with happiness. the seeker has a sort of frenzy in their eyes as they look down beneath the water.

“it must be there, it must be…” they mutter, tapping their fingers in a frenzy. “i’m certain of it. beneath route ten’s waves there has to be a secret. there  _ has  _ to be. if not ─”

“i know,” sicheng agrees. “i… understand.”

they sit in silence and stare out at the waves.

* * *

sicheng finds an injured chinchou at the shore. there is a gash in the side of one of the feelers atop its head, and a tear in a fin. it lets out a pitiful cry. “oh…” he murmurs, already letting samurott out. “poor thing. who would hurt you like that?” he pulls a huge, heavy bowl from his pack, and has samurott use brine to fill it up. “come here, sweetheart.”

gently, sicheng moves the pokemon into the bowl. he picks it up and begins walking. chinchou blinks up at him. “hey, hey. it’s okay,” he says soothingly, “i’m taking you to get healed. you’ll be fine soon enough, i promise.” it relaxes; he smiles down at it.

nurse joy takes the pokemon in for one of her assistants to scan over. “you did a wonderful job bringing her in, sicheng,” she tells him, deliberately keeping her voice soothing, “thank you for keeping her in salt water to bring her in.” he glows with pride, and thanks her for helping chinchou in an equally quiet voice.

chinchou’s feeler injury turns out to be too severe to be healed overnight. joy offers him a bed upstairs. he takes the offer gleefully, sinking down into it. sicheng just barely stays awake long enough to brush his teeth, but sinks into the bed and falls asleep before he can change.

he wakes up, his eyes still sleep-heavy. the bed is far too comfortable to move. sicheng turns onto his side, yawning into the pillow. it’s too early. all he wants to do is curl back up, fall asleep, and when he’s more rested wake to the sunlight. but chinchou is more important.

he changes quickly, pulling on some ripped jeans and a golden yellow flannel. he doesn’t bother with shoes, instead heading down in socks. joy is already at the desk, sorting papers into piles. “is chinchou okay?” he asks, and she looks up at him. “i’m worried about it.”

she begins on a positive note, “chansey and audino were able to heal the damage to her fin with little challenge, thankfully. however the feeler has retained some damage. it will be duller than usual, which could prevent chinchou from surviving in its deep ocean habitat.”

sicheng frowns and bites on his lip. “could ─ should i capture it, do you think?”

“i think so,” joy agrees. “chinchou already seems to like you; why not?”

chinchou leans into his palm, letting him rub gently over its scales. it makes a strange sort of noise, but it sounds happy to see him. sicheng smiles at it. he pulls out a dive ball from his pocket (he’d bought one from the mart, earlier) and places it on his palm. the pokemon tilts a fin to the side, before tapping the ball.

the capture is instant.

he hears another rumour, not long after. the seeker tells him, “apparently you need light to see the temple.  _ light. ‘the path of light reveals the way, to a true heart there is no obscurity. the king’s love must shine within you.’  _ what does it mean? i don’t understand, what ─”

sicheng hums. “the path of light. maybe you need to use flash, to illuminate something?”

“exactly,” the seeker mumbles, and descends into frantic muttering once more.

* * *

the rumours return when he reaches the desert. chinchou is resting at home, with kun; it loves being with him, but the desert would dry out its skin and put it in danger. he can’t do that to it. instead, he takes his samurott, and the palpitoad that taeyong gives to desert travellers. sicheng wants to look for a sandile, or maybe an elgyem. the pokemon that lurk in the desert have always interested him.

“sicheng?” one of the treasure hunters asks, “is that you?”

“it is,” he murmurs, “how did you ─?”

she beams, “the relic seeker told us to find you! there’s more rumours about the ruins. apparently they’re connected to the relic castle here; perhaps this is the home of that old king they mention?”

“i wonder…”

“there’s names, too,” the treasure hunter says, suddenly serious, “three of them, inscribed on a piece of jewelry i found in this castle. it uses three sets of characters, but i don’t know two of them. i’m giving it to you.”

sicheng puts his hands out and catches the band easily. “i ─” he goes to say something to her, he doesn’t quite know what, but she’s already gone. her silhouette vanishes into the sandstorm. the sound of her footsteps is swallowed by the wind.

sicheng ducks into the entrance to the castle’s ruins. the sound of the sandstorm raging is still heavy, but at least his vision is no longer obscured. he tucks himself into a corner, and pulls the band out.

of the three character sets, he only recognises one. the other two are familiar but in a way that he cannot place.  _ 董思成,  _ the final set reads. it is all too familiar, not like the others, because he has known it for all of his life.

it is his own name.  _ dong sicheng,  _ inscribed on old material, alongside two other sets of words. sicheng wonders why his name is there. for his own name to be there, on something so old… it seems almost faked.

maybe he should search the castle. maybe he should see if there are any other relics in the same design, with the same inscriptions on them. if his own name is shown once, if this is indeed a real relic… then maybe he will find answers within the rooms of the castle.

sicheng wanders through the castle, the only sound his footsteps. he searches each room he comes across, checking the millenia-old furniture, opening old cabinets in search of anything. anything with one of the sets of characters, anything that could hold an answer for him.

he finds it, in one of the last rooms, deep in the basement of the castle. sicheng stares up at the carving, trying to take in each detail. it reaches up to the ceiling, taller than himself, and he has to crane his neck to see it all. the words ─ the  _ names,  _ he realises ─ are at the top.

_ 董思成  _ is written on the left, and the other two sets of characters appear too. one in the middle and one on the right. they each have their own faces, their own people beneath them. sicheng looks closely at the middle, at the face of the king. he seems familiar, too. his sharp jawline and his bright eyes stand out, a clear centerpiece. the king is wearing his crown, which looks too heavy for him.

sicheng can’t help but wonder why.

* * *

chinchou glows under water, the pale yellow-green light just enough to see underwater. just enough to take in the dark image of a broken pillar in the distance. “thanks, chinchou,” he whispers, quiet, trying not to disturb the relic seeker. “we’ll go down soon.  _ soon,  _ i promise.”

sicheng returns to the pokemon center as quietly as he can. joy passes him the diving gear they keep stored away. “stay safe,” she tells him. “i’ve heard there are jellicent nearby.” he tightens the strap of the mask and smiles. he’ll do his best.

samurott dives underneath the waves, and his ears pop. he blinks, feels himself adjusting to the sudden change in pressure. the salt makes his skin itch. it takes time, but his eyes slowly adjust to the gloom. his starter dives deeper down, a powerful kick of its legs propelling them towards the seafloor.

“chinchou,” sicheng murmurs, and opens the dive ball.

chinchou scouts ahead, returning once it has moved through the whole maze. the ominous click has him worried; what if the place is trapped, or something worse… sicheng frowns, but trusts chinchou as it leads him forward. the pokemon knows the path after just one pass, somehow. the dim glow from its lanterns illuminates the path before them.  _ go on, brave king,  _ he reads, and thinks,  _ i am no king. _

they emerge on another level, where sicheng can make out inscriptions on the walls.  _ our king gave us hope, gave us light, gave us wonder,  _ he reads.  _ life is gratitude.  _ the words continue on. a mixture of half-meaningful phrases, some of them which he doesn’t understand. some of them are from the king. some of them are from his people. each of them expresses the same sense of hope, the same sense of despair.

_ all is precious,  _ he reads, and samurott leads them further in.

chinchou’s glow grows brighter as they pass through the archway.  _ think, act with love.  _ the walls repeat the message over and over, until sicheng can remember the symbols and what they mean by heart. there is a portrait of the king, done in elegant stonework. his eyes are soft, gentle, as he looks at a figure in the distance. emotion spills out of the work. at the bottom of it, he reads:  _ the king’s love for 董思成 outshone all. _

the king’s name is never once used. why, then, in a monument to him, in a testament to his achievements, why would sicheng be mentioned? why would the king love him more than anything else?

chinchou nudges him and leads him on. samurott moves slowly. it’s as if it senses that something awaits them. anxious energy crawls up his bones. sicheng drums his fingers against samurott’s horn, as it floats up the stairs.

the room is empty. it is huge, and empty, aside from a glass-like structure. a crown is tossed to the side, partially chipped, as if it had been abandoned long ago. samurott swims through the room slowly, eventually circling around the glass. if he squints sicheng can see the outline of a face.

the closed eyes, familiar lips… it has to be him.

sicheng reaches out, his fingers touch the glass, and ─

silence.

* * *

he hears rumours, sometimes. about the hidden temple beneath the ocean. he hears a girl say that she explored it, that she found a strange runic tablet with only the word  _ 董思成  _ inscribed upon its surface. “i don’t understand,” sicheng hears the girl say, “what is this? why is this word so important?”

sicheng asks, “would you like to know?”

she wants to, of course. this girl is like all the others. she’s too eager to know it, too curious about the stories she thinks she is going to uncover. if she gets too ahead of herself, too preoccupied with the version of events she believes… well. sicheng doesn’t want to know what that would mean.

“the king ruled in a time of peace for his kingdom,” sicheng begins. the girl stares up at him, wide-eyed and nervous. she’s expecting the worst. at first, he did, too. “he wanted his subjects to feel loved, and appreciated, in a way that he felt he had never been shown. the king loved all of his people; he cherished them, and the prosperity and life they brought to the land.”

“but, as all rulers do, the king had his favourites. two in particular he loved more than any other: his most trusted confidant, taeil, and his closest companion, sicheng.”

the girl frowns. “but ─ aren’t they ─?”

“listen,” sicheng frowns back. “you wanted to know this, after all. the king adored these two; he would shower them in gifts of gold and silver and copper, and treat them to the finest clothing the royal family had to offer. and they adored him back. while they could not give him riches or fine silks, they could offer him friendship. they could offer him love.”

“while the king’s land prospered, other rulers were not so lucky. their lands dried out, their crops did not grow, there was no abundance of food like my king had. and they grew jealous of him. they wanted what his home had to offer.”

“a secret alliance was struck between the two. they would do whatever they could to destroy the king’s very soul, to break the royal family down and take that land. it would be split equally between them. the heroes of truth and ideals swore that it was just to take the land, as they had none of support their own people; they did not care that his own people would not thrive.”

“in the dead of night, they struck. their people burnt the houses of the king’s subjects whilst the two heroes snuck into the palace. the guards were killed silently, brutally. the heroes made their way to the king’s room as efficiently as they could, in hopes of finding the king asleep. they did not.”

“instead, they saw the king and his lovers, engaged deep in conversation with each other. they saw a different side to the king, gentle as he was there, pressing kisses to their faces and whispering assurances of his love for them. and they hated him for it.”

“the heroes knew that they wanted the king to suffer. just as the confidant said ‘i love you,’ to the king, they burst into the room, magic at their fingertips. ‘i curse you,’ said the hero of truth. the hero of ideals continued, ‘to a life without love. i curse you,’ he paused, and truth picked up, ‘to watch as your love is torn from you, time and time again.’ the magic within them pulsed and flared. ‘we curse you to never find your love, whole and happy, for as long as your lives may last.”

“the king’s lovers could only watch as the magic sank under the king’s skin, and he fell down, unmoving. the confidant could only watch as the  _ heroes, _ ” he spat, the anger digging into his skin, “struck down the companion. the confidant could only cry as he realised that, in mere minutes, both of his loves were taken from him.”

the girl’s eyes widen. tears gather in her eyes; they must be in his, too. “but ─ i thought they were heroes,” she whispers eventually. her voice sounds broken. “i thought they saved this land.”

“they were,” he says. “to their people. but not to the broken king’s.”

she taps the tablet. “this says sicheng’s name, doesn’t it,” she starts. sicheng can only nod. “and i know the confidant was named taeil. but ─ what was the king’s name? and why was his tomb underwater?”

sicheng pulls out his own relic. his name, taeil’s and the king’s all shine from within. he smiles gently. “taeil buried the king beneath the waves, as he knew the heroes would try to destroy his legacy. they commanded creatures of fire and lightning, where the king would be safe if he was deep beneath the sea.”

“and his name?”

“the king’s name was yuta.”

**Author's Note:**

> i might write more but i dont know which  
so uh  
tell me, which one?
> 
> ─ yuta trying to adapt to modern life  
─ sicheng n yuta trying to adjust to openly being with each other  
─ sicheng / yuta searching for taeil alone  
─ sicheng n yuta looking for taeil together  
─ taeil looking for them
> 
> i might write all of them just to see how it works. also!! tell me what pokemon to give them blease
> 
> follow my twt @starry_blair


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